Execuflight Flight 1526

Execuflight Flight 1526 was an Execuflight airline charter flight from Dayton Airport, Ohio to Akron Fulton Airport on November 10, 2015, with a Hawker-Siddeley 125 700A. On final approach to Akron, the pilots lost control of the aircraft. It crashed in a residential neighborhood and exploded. The nine occupants were killed in the crash. The aircraft and the house in which it had crashed burned completely.

Crew
The crew consisted of 40-year-old Colombian Captain Oscar Chávez and 50-year-old Italian First Officer Renato Marchese. There were no flight attendants on the flight.  The captain had been with the airline since June 4, 2015. His cumulative flight experience was 6,170 hours, of which he had flown 3,414 hours as pilot in command.  He had 1,020 hours of flight experience with the accident plane, of which 670 hours as pilot in command. The first officer was hired by Execuflight on June 1, 2015. He had 4,382 hours of flight experience, 3,200 of which he had served as pilot in command.  His flight experience with accident-type aircraft totaled 482 hours, which he had completed in its entirety as a first officer.

Accident
Flight 1526 took off from Dayton Wright Brothers Airport (MCY) headed for Akron-Canton Airport (CAK). The flight's cruising altitude was 17,000 feet (5,180 metres).

While descending to 13,000 feet (3,960 metres), the Captain checked the weather with the control tower. They reported winds at 290 degrees at 07 knots, visibility of 2 km, and temperature at 09 Celsius, but with unpredictable weather.

As the crew descended at 9,000 feet (2,740 metres), the controller reported the visibility changed at 1.5 mist, weather condition 600 feet broken, and temperature 11 Celsius.

Six minutes from landing, the crew got a new distraction. A flight instructor was teaching another pilot how to land in bad weather on the same runway as Flight 1526. The controller held Flight 1526 on the approach and requested heading 360, reducing speed 170 knots, and maintaining 3,000 feet which they required to hold their course and delay their descent. After two minutes further delay on runway 25 localizer, Flight 1526 was cleared to land. The crew was notified that the Piper had landed safely on the runway and the pilots were now ready to land. While approaching on the runway, the crew checked the final preparations onto the runway 25 localizer. Two miles from the runway, the pilots were still searching when the visibility got worse. They had to maintain a safe minimum descent altitude until the pilots could see the runway. The plane then broke through thick clouds, allowing the pilots to see the ground clearly. With the plane still approaching and still looking for the runway, they had descended very steeply. Below the minimum descent altitude, the First Officer tried to push the throttle up, then the stick shaker and aerodynamic stall warning sounded. Within the final moments of the flight, the plane crashed into two-story residential building and exploded.

 Accident report 
The MDA for the localizer performance version of the AKR RNAV GPS 25 approach was 1,520 ft msl, and the height of the MDA above the TDZE for the lateral navigation version of the approach was 501 ft.Within reading from the approach chart, it showed 2 ways to make a same approach on the runway.  The first way on the landing approach was 1,520 feet sea level below from the MDA.  The second showed 501 feet above the ground in a same difference of a height which needs to require to have a higher distance altitude during the final approach onto the runway.

Investigation
Recordings and interviews with the colleagues of the pilots showed that the pilots were overly tired at the time of the accident. They had only slept about six hours a night on average during the previous nights.

The pilots were extremely tired during the flight and they lowered the aircraft below the safe altitude of 473 feet. They could see the ground but still could not see the runway. As they searched for the runway, they failed to see that the airspeed had dropped to 98 knots, causing an aerodynamic stall and crashed into two-storey residential building.

 In popular culture 
The accident is featured in the 2nd episode of Season 21 of Air Crash Investigation, also known as Mayday. The episode is titled "Playing Catch Up".

References

 Other websites 

 Crash During Nonprecision Instrument Approach to Landing Execuflight Flight 1526 British Aerospace HS125-700A, N237WR Akron, Ohio November 10, 2015 Accident Report NTSB/AAR-16/03 PB2016-104168, National Transportation Safety Board.
 Crash of a BAe 125-700A in Akron: 9 killed, B3A – Bureau of Aircraft Accident Archives

Category:2015 in North America
Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in 2015
Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States
Category:Airliner accidents and incidents caused by pilot error